[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF STATES IN NATIONAL HEALTH LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon [Mr.Wyden] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to focus tonight on health 
issues, and I come to the debate as one who since my days as co-
director of the Oregon Gray Panthers has really looked forward to this 
day when we would be debating national health care legislation on the 
floor of this body, and I come tonight especially to focus on the 
important role that the States have played in moving the health reform 
effort ahead during these long years when Congress has been unwilling 
to act. Fourteen State have now enacted major health reform laws or are 
in the process of enacting major health reforms. These reforms are as 
diverse as the States and the people who live in them, but the bottom 
line can really be distilled into four simple truths.
  First, our States have cast the tough votes, enacted health reforms, 
and our States and the legislators who fought for these reforms have 
lived to tell about it.
  Second, our States have found millions of citizens who are in crisis 
and in desperate need of health care reform.
  And third, we know that our States can help more people get better 
health care sooner if Congress will create a fast track process for our 
States to get waivers from very complicated and burdensome Federal 
legislation such as the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act.
  Mr. Speaker, what our States want and need from this Congress in 
national health legislation is an expedited process to be able to 
insure all their workers through these waivers under the Employee 
Retirement Income and Security Act. Our States want a program where 
they can go to one office at the Federal level which is authorized to 
help speed up these State health care reforms.

                              {time}  2020

  The States need a right to have quick and timely answers to their 
applications for these special waivers, so that they can insure all 
their citizens without delay.
  I proposed such a waiver program in legislation in 1992, along with 
several of our colleagues in the other body, and I am especially 
pleased tonight that the Majority Leader of this body has largely 
included these provisions, that can help jump start State health care 
reform, in his legislation.
  Now, in beginning this discussion about the important role of the 
States, I think we ought to first focus on the evidence that the States 
have shown with respect to how many people in our country are in crisis 
and want action on health care reform now.
  So I am going to read just a few of the headlines that have come out 
on the first phase of the Oregon health plan. One of them begins, 
``Health Coverage Stampede. Uninsured Oregonians Inundate New 
Program.''
  It goes on to say while politicians in Washington, DC. debate the 
question of whether there is a health care coverage crisis in our 
country, thousands of poor and uninsured Oregonians have been saying in 
no uncertain terms that there is one for them. The breadth and depth of 
the need have been driven home vividly at dozens of small informational 
meetings such as one at Portland's downtown YWCA.
  Here is what our State's largest paper, the Oregonian, reported as 
well. The headline was ``Oregon Health Care Plan Draws Massive 
Interest.'' In talking to several of those who participated, they 
reported, oh, thank God something like this has finally come. Some 
people say, I haven't had insurance in years. I have been going 
without. My children have been going without. And the Oregon health 
plan has been for them.
  Now, one of the most striking aspects of what my State has found and 
so many of you other reform-minded States have found is that so many of 
those who desperately need health care are families with children, 
families who work, families with income. This notion that everybody 
that is uninsured is 20 or 21-years-old and is some sort of a physical 
fitness pro, or something like that, is belied by the reality of what 
we are seeing in my State and other States across the country. We are 
seeing adults, we are seeing families, we are seeing people who have 
put off desperately needed health care year after year, and now these 
two-parent families that are struggling are able to get access to 
decent care.
  But the bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is to get health reform faster at 
the State level we need these ERISA reforms. I urge my colleagues to 
support the majority leader's bill.

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